Press Releases

January 30, 2012	AFTRA Members Ratify Sound Recordings Contract AFTRA members who work in Sound Recordings have ratified a successor agreement to the AFTRA National Code of Fair Practice for Sound Recordings.
January 28, 2012	Board Approves Merger Agreement The AFTRA National Board on Saturday voted overwhelmingly to approve and send to membership a plan to merge with SAG.
January 25, 2012	Whoopi Goldberg to Present at 2012 AMEE Awards Presenting awards at the AMEES benefit gala will be comedian Robert Klein, actress and host Whoopi Goldberg and MTV executive Bill Flanagan.
January 20, 2012	Joint Statement Regarding SOPA and PIPA "Our commitment to the First Amendment is decades old and long established – it is a matter of public record from long before the word ‘Internet’ was part of anyone’s vocabulary."
January 16, 2012	G1 Reaches Agreement on Merger Package Nine days of productive discussions and reaching consensus lead to a Merger Package approved by the G1 to send to the respective boards of AFTRA and SAG for approval.
January 12, 2012	Performers, Industry Executives Talk I AM PWD I AM PWD, a tri-union partnership to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities in the media, marked the end of its three-year campaign Wednesday, January 11 with a bi-coastal industry summit held via videoconference.
January 6, 2012	Music Video Performers Rally Across Country Music video dancers and performers turned out in New York, Miami and Beverly Hills to tell the major music labels "It's About Time" they get a fair contract.
January 5, 2012	Have You Voted? Ballots are due back Jan. 30 for voting on the tentative agreement for the AFTRA Sound Recordings Code.
December 15, 2011	Tentative Agreement on Sound Recordings Contract AFTRA members achieved an increase in base rates, as well as the key objective of increasing employer contributions to the AFTRA Health and Retirement Funds.
December 11, 2011	Tentative Agreement for NetCode Contract AFTRA members achieved their primary objective in this negotiation: increases in employer contributions to the AFTRA Health & Retirement Funds. Upon ratification, the three-year agreement will run from Nov. 16, 2011 through Nov. 15, 2014.
December 7, 2011	Protect Your Money, Ensure Your Future Actor and AFTRA National Board member Jason Priestley and producer/songwriter Michele Vice-Maslin will be featured panelists.
November 23, 2011	AFTRA Statement Regarding Prospect Park AFTRA Statement Regarding Prospect Park's Decision to Suspend Production of "One Life to Live" and "All My Children" LOS ANGELES (Nov. 23, 2011) --- The following is a statement from AFTRA, the union that represents actors on "One Life to Live" and "All My Children": "AFTRA was deeply...
November 17, 2011	The 2012 AMEE Awards Rosanne Cash, Phylicia Rashad and Pete Fornatale will be honored in New York at the AFTRA Foundation's 2012 AMEE Awards.
November 11, 2011	Martinez Honored with AFTRA Diversity Award The Iraq war vet and current "Dancing with the Stars" contender also received special honors from the U.S. Army.
November 10, 2011	Expert: Act Protects Speech Creators In a letter to the House Judiciary Chair and Ranking Member, leading First Amendment expert Floyd Abrams wrote the "Stop Online Piracy Act "currently under consideration in the House would protect creators of speech.
November 4, 2011	AFTRA and WEEK/WHOI Back at the Table "I am very proud of the reporters, anchors, producers and photographers at WEEK/WHOI. They have stood up for themselves and their profession. AFTRA is also grateful to the community for the support shown to us" said AFTRA Local President Gary Moore
November 3, 2011	Net Code Negotiations Start Negotiations with the four major television broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) and other producers will commence on Nov. 7.
October 27, 2011	AFTRA, SAG Condemn IMDB Age Descrimination IMDb publishes the actual dates of birth of thousands of actors without their consent, most of them not celebrities but rank-and-file actors whose names are unknown to the general public.
October 27, 2011	Are Your Royalties at Risk? In an anti-artist and anti-musician move, SiriusXM is seeking to sign up independent labels to a “direct license” deal that reduces the money it pays for music and gives the artist share directly to the indie label, not the performer.
October 26, 2011	Unions Issue Statement on STOP Online Piracy Act AFTRA, AFM, DGA, IATSE, IBT and SAG applaud lawmakers for introduction HR 3261, the STOP Online Piracy Act.
October 26, 2011	Martinez among Tri-Union Ivy Award honorees Current "Dancing with the Stars" leader and AFTRA member J.R. Martinez will receive the Union's diversity award at the 9th Annual Ivy Bethune Tri-Union Diversity Awards on Nov. 7.
October 19, 2011	One Union Talks Continue AFTRA and SAG convened for the third formal face-to-face discussions of the Group for One Union. G1 members including actors, performers, recording artists and broadcast professionals are working to facilitate the creation of a merged successor union.
October 12, 2011	Entertainment Unions Support Joining Forces The Inter-Guild Joining Forces Task Force today released new public service announcements (PSAs) featuring Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Oprah Winfrey.
October 7, 2011	AFTRA Statement Regarding Sound Recordings Code Negotiations LOS ANGELES (Oct. 7, 2011) --- Today, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, AFL-CIO – a national union of more than 70,000 recording artists, broadcasters and actors – released the following statement regarding the status of its Sound Recordings Code negotiations: “Despite more than...
October 1, 2011	National Board Readies for Action The National Board met in Los Angeles and New York and took action on a variety of union issues including the Sound Recordings Code negotiations and the upcoming Net Code negotiations.
September 28, 2011	TV Lacks Disabled Characters A report on television minority representation shows that scripted characters with disabilities will represent less than 1 percent of all scripted series regular characters.
September 15, 2011	Artists: Claim Your Digital Royalties AFTRA and SoundExchange have teamed up to identify and register 6,126 AFTRA members who haven’t claimed their SoundExchange royalties.
September 1, 2011	Boston Gets New Exec AFTRA Boston Local Assistant Executive Director Tom Higgins has been promoted to Executive Director of the Boston Local, effective Aug. 29.
August 29, 2011	One Union Talks Continue AFTRA and SAG continued formal discussions this weekend between the AFTRA New Union Committee and the SAG Merger Task Force to facilitate the creation of one union to represent all members of Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA.
August 16, 2011	Sound Recordings Talks Begin The opening round of bargaining was held in New York City where the AFTRA National Sound Recordings Code Negotiating Committee and staff met with representatives from Sony, UMG, Warner, EMI, Disney and most of their subsidiary labels.
August 3, 2011	AFTRA Supports BBC Broadcasters Represented By NUJ AFTRA National President Roberta Reardon released the following statement of support to BBC journalists - members of the National Union of Journalists – who are at odds with their employer over various job issues, including layoffs of more than 300 employees. On Monday, they staged a 24-hour strike: ...
July 24, 2011	Reardon Re-Elected to Third Term Delegates wrapped up three days of convention with national officer elections.
July 22, 2011	AFTRA Rallies with UNITE HERE Attendees at the 63rd AFTRA National Convention in Seattle paused their National Convention at 5:00 p.m. Friday to join with members of UNITE HERE Local 8 at their Day of Action! Better Jobs rally outside of the Westin Seattle.
July 20, 2011	Pre-Convention Plenary Convenes in Seattle AFTRA National Board approves proposals for Sound Recordings and Network Television Contracts, explores schedule adjustment to prioritize Sound Code negotiations and New Union discussions.
July 18, 2011	Members to Convene 63rd National Convention More than 300 AFTRA member Delegates representing the Union’s membership in 32 Locals and Chapters throughout the country will be in Seattle for the three-day biennial National Convention.
July 15, 2011	AFTRA Videogame Contract Ratified AFTRA members approved the new agreement by a vote of 85% in favor. The new pact includes a groundbreaking provision: the industry’s first-ever streaming payment paid to performers in the form of a new cloud gaming fee.
July 15, 2011	Tweet Your Support for Local News Members of AFTRA Peoria launch a Twitter campaign in conjunction with the “Day of Reckoning” rally for WEEK/WHOI-TV member employees.
July 12, 2011	Day of Reckoning’ for WEEK/WHOI-TV Members of the Peoria Local have announced that on Friday, July 15 they will hold a 'Day of Reckoning' rally for WEEK/WHOI-TV. They are inviting community and business allies, including local labor, civic and religious leaders to join them for the rally.
July 7, 2011	Praise for Copyright Alerts AFTRA National Executive Director Kim Roberts Hedgpeth said, “The new Copyright Alerts system and the Center for Copyright Information will play an important role in AFTRA’s mission to fight against digital theft"
July 6, 2011	Announcing Creative America The new initiative will build grassroots support for the fight against content theft and to protect our country’s vibrant arts and culture as well as serve as the unified voice of the more than 2 million Americans whose jobs are supported by film and TV.
June 19, 2011	Formal Talks for One Union Begin AFTRA and SAG convened this weekend for the first, formal face-to-face discussions between the AFTRA New Union Committee and the SAG Merger Task Force at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Maryland.
June 16, 2011	Judiciary OKs Commercial Felony Streaming Act AFTRA and its sister unions and guilds commended the Senate Judiciary Committee for passage of the Commercial Felony Streaming Act.
June 13, 2011	MILITARY FAMILIES TELL THEIR STORIES TO HOLLYWOOD First Lady Michelle Obama joined members of the military and their families for a discussion with entertainment industry movers and shakers about the Joining Forces campaign. The event was co-hosted by AFTRA, DGA, PGA, SAG and WGAW.
June 9, 2011	New Videogame Contract Connects AFTRA to the Cloud Part of the tentative agreement with videogame industry is a groundbreaking provision: the industry’s first-ever streaming payment paid to performers in the form of a new cloud gaming fee.
June 8, 2011	Members approve new NBIE Contract The memberships of AFTRA and SAG voted 95 percent to 5 percent in favor of the new AFTRA National Code of Fair Practice for Non Broadcast/Industrial/Educational Recorded Material and the SAG Industrial and Educational Contract.
May 26, 2011	Senate Judiciary passes PROTECT IP Act In a joint statement, AFTRA, along with AFM, DGA, IATSE, the Teamsters and SAG commended the Senate Judiciary Committee on passing the PROTECT IP Act.
May 19, 2011	AFTRA Commends $105 Million LimeWire Settlement Union demands information from record labels to confirm and secure payment to artists.
May 17, 2011	Fight for Fair Contracts AFTRA Peoria members distributed flyers to the residence and neighbors of Granite Broadcasting’s CEO Peter Markham. The flyers and call on the community to support professional AFTRA broadcast journalists.
May 14, 2011	National Board approves New Union Committee The Board overwhelmingly passed a resolution approving the appointment of the AFTRA New Union Committee to work with the SAG Merger Task Force in developing a plan to unite AFTRA and SAG into a single, new successor union.
May 12, 2011	Joint Statement from AFTRA, DGA, IATSE and SAG Commending Legislation to Make Illegal Streaming a Felony Los Angeles (May 12, 2011) – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), Directors Guild of America (DGA), International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada (IATSE), and Screen Actors Guild...
May 12, 2011	PROTECT IP Act AFM, AFTRA, DGA, IATSE, SAG and Teamsters released a statement in support of legislation will give U.S. law enforcement agencies much needed and far more effective tools to fight the growth of those who knowingly trafficking in stolen content.
May 5, 2011	New Tri-State Exec John Hilsman succeeds John Haer, who is retiring after more than ten years of service with AFTRA. He will oversee the work of the AFTRA Pittsburgh and Tri-State offices.
April 22, 2011	Nathaniel Applefield Hired as AFTRA National Representative and Executive Director of the Portland Local LOS ANGELES (April 22, 2011) - The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, AFL-CIO - a national union of more than 70,000 professional performers, recording artists and broadcasters - today announced that Nathaniel Applefield has been hired to serve as AFTRA National Representative/Local Executive...
April 15, 2011	AFTRA Panel at NALIP Conference to Examine Latino Diversity in Entertainment Jason George Moderates Discussion with Rosa Blasi, Jason Manuel Olazabal, Emilio Rivera, Lisa Vidal LOS ANGELES (April 15, 2011) – The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, AFL-CIO – a national union of more than 70,000 performers, recording artists and broadcast professionals – is...
April 14, 2011	AFTRA Statement Regarding Cancellation of ‘All My Children’ and ‘One Life to Live’ LOS ANGELES (April 14, 2011) – The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, AFL-CIO – a national union of more than 70,000 performers, recording artists and broadcast professionals – today released the statement below following the announcement by ABC that it has cancelled two long-running AFTRA...
April 5, 2011	ACTRA, AEA, AFTRA & SAG LAUNCH NEW I AM PWD VIDEO Canadian Actors Produce New Video Promoting Workplace Accessibility FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 6, 2011 ACTRA, AEA, AFTRA & SAG LAUNCH NEW I AM PWD VIDEO Canadian Actors Produce New Video Promoting Workplace Accessibility LOS ANGELES, TORONTO, NEW YORK – The Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), the Alliance of Canadian...
April 4, 2011	Unions comment on IP theft AFTRA, DGA, IATSE and SAG released a statement today in conjunction with a news conference in Washington D.C., lead by Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, denouncing Internet theft and pushing for legislation to protect the industry.
April 4, 2011	AFTRA Members Oppose Massive Deregulation in Florida Deregulation of talent agents leaves vulnerable the most susceptible in society: children and young adults MIAMI (April 4, 2011) – The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, AFL-CIO, today released the letter below, also attached, that was sent on March 30 to Denise Grimsley (R), Chair,...
March 31, 2011	AFTRA, SAG Reach Tentative NBIE Agreements The Joint Non-Broadcast/Industrials Negotiating Committee for AFTRA and SAG reached a tentative agreement with industry representatives on terms for three-year successor agreements to each union's respective non-broadcast/industrial code.
March 29, 2011	The 2011 American Scene Awards Call for entries. The American Scene Awards®, are a national competition that recognize excellence in the employment and portrayal of women, minorities, seniors, people with disabilities and the LGBT community.
March 22, 2011	2011 AMEE Awards Receiving honors were veteran Spanish-language Dodgers announcer Jaime Jarrín, “America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer David Crosby.
March 10, 2011	AFTRA Hires Rebecca Faez as National Director of Administration and Human Resources Union Announces Other Recent Key Staff Hires and Appointments LOS ANGELES (March 10, 2011) — The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, AFL-CIO – a national union of more than 70,000 professional performers, recording artists and broadcasters – today announced that Rebecca Faez has...
March 1, 2011	Foundation contributes to VITA upgrade AFTRA Foundation, Actors' Equity Foundation and SAG Foundation each contributed to upgrading VITA's New York office, which provides year-round tax preparation for performers.
February 17, 2011	Foundation to Honor Jarrín, Walsh and Crosby Legendary Dodgers broadcaster Jaime Jarrín, “America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh and recording artist David Crosby will be honored on March 21 at Club Nokia in Los Angeles.
January 22, 2011	Board Approves One Union Process Board passes a resolution formally authorizing AFTRA leadership to continue working with Screen Actors Guild in the Presidents’ Forum for One Union and its “Listening Tour” between now and the Board’s next regular meeting.
January 14, 2011	AFTRA, SAG Members Ratify TV/Theatrical Contract More than 90 percent of AFTRA and SAG members voted to approve a new, three-year primetime TV and theatrical contract.
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